The present invention relates to amusement devices and in particular to games and methods of testing a player""s knowledge of a personality""s body of works.
Games are well known in which players or teams of players must travel about an endless pathway as determined by a chance device and wherein each player is challenged to display their knowledge about a subject as a result of a consequence indicator on the pathway.
Once such game, Trivial Pursuit(trademark), utilizes a game board having an endless pathway of contiguous spaces or positions in the shape of a spoked wheel. Each of the positions displays an insignia signifying one of six categories from which questions are presented to the player(s). A card set is utilized to provide the challenge questions. The players move game pieces about the board according to the roll of a die. When a player successfully answers a question, they are rewarded with a marker which is fit into the game piece. Once a player has collected a marker for each of the categories, the player moves the game piece up the spokes of the wheel toward the center of the board and once there, must answer a question from a category of the other players choosing, in order to win the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,839 to Katsion et al. teaches a game based on knowledge of movies and actors. The game paraphernalia includes a score pad, timer and a plurality of playing cards having a pictorial representation and a name of an actor on one side and a list of movies in which they have appeared on the other. Players take turns within each round attempting to correctly guess a single one of the movies on the bottom face of a card that is selected at the beginning of the round. An incorrect answer renders a player out of the current round while a correct guess affords a player a point. The round is played until each of the players is rendered out or all of the listed movies have been identified. If two players tie at the end of the round, a tie-breaker card is selected by each and the player to identify the greatest number of movies listed on the back face of the other players card during a timed interval is awarded a point. The overall winner of the game is the player having the greatest number of points within a predetermined number of rounds.
Other movie-related games such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,928 to Salerno-Sonneberg are also known. Players advance about a game board using a pair of dice and are challenged to identify a title of a movie matching the movie category of the position on which the player""s game piece has landed, aided by being read a quote from the movie which is printed on a card selected. Throughout the course of the game, players accumulate markers corresponding to the movie categories after successfully identifying movie titles in each category. Play is terminated when one player receives a marker for each of the movie categories.
Each of the known prior art games appeal to different age and interest groups and are intended to both entertain and challenge the knowledge of players.
The game of the present invention provides entertainment while challenging the knowledge of the players, or teams of players, under a time deadline, about bodies of works that are credited to personalities.
In one embodiment of the invention, players are tested on their knowledge of movies and actors. Each player is challenged to recognize an actor""s face or their name as displayed on a card and, within a predetermined elapsed term of their turn, the current player is challenged to list as many movies as they can in which the actor appeared. The answers are verified by checking against a comprehensive list of credits provided with the game. Points are awarded for each correct answer. The movies are divided into categories called xe2x80x9cMatch Playxe2x80x9d, each category being assigned a number and representing a decade in which the movies were made. Thus, the current player is not only tested on his ability to recognize a personality and match the personality to their work, but is also tested on the player""s knowledge of movies over a large span of time.
Preferably, the game comprises a game interface, a plurality of game pieces, a plurality of card sets as tokens including a xe2x80x9cMatch Playxe2x80x9d card set for each category, a set of xe2x80x9cSteal Playxe2x80x9d cards, a chance device, a timer, a comprehensive book of bodies of works and a set of rules of play.
In a movie embodiment of the invention, the game interface comprises a star-shaped board having an endless pathway comprised of positions marked with indicia providing instructions regarding options for the selection of cards from the plurality of card sets or alternatively instructions to vary the course of play, such as missing a turn. Each player traverses the pathway, as a result of numbers generated by the chance device, and responds to the various instructions provided, collecting points as awarded for correctly identifying movies in which actors have appeared, until such time as one player has achieved a predetermined number of points or a predetermined time interval is complete.